Anonymous
6/16/2025, 8:54:18 AM No.149030228
Superman is just a broken concept. His powers are basic yet OP. He's special-super-jesus-larping-as-an-aww-schucks-schmuck but also his powers come from being exposed to a yellow sun which means every single Kryptonian has the potential to be near him in powerlevels. He's supposed to represent "muh hope" but he can never impact anything due to the nature of the medium. His monthly adventures aren't anything that any other flying brick or cosmic or magic type of hero cannot handled, yet he's constantly purported to be something higher. At the end of the day you have just a guy running around a single city wasting his powers and doing nothing of note, but because Superman is Superman he gets a pass and that's somehow some big important commentary. You add a scene of him eating apple pie and everyone laps it up like it's some insightful critique on the nature of power.
Superman just doesn't work as a monthly character. His lore is broken, his enemies are generic copycats with little agency, his powers are both OP and trite, his entire being is contradictory as the whole idea of a "man of tomorrow" will never come as he's never allowed to impact anything. Superman works best as a one-off character in Elseworlds tales where his mere presence shapes the world around him. Where there are no derivatives and Super-Families to drag the concept down. Superman just cannot be used like other cape characters. In a shared universe he can only be a villain-adjascent character or a withdrawn cosmic force that sees action every once in a while. Superman's only usefulness is to be a god-on-earth with the analogous powers and standing, coming in and out of other characters' stories. It's why MiracleMan is a superior Superman, for the character actually fulfilled his function. Superman works only in mini formats like Red Son and the such, otherwise he's a less than mediocre cape that has a lot of manufactured importance thrust onto him.
Superman just doesn't work as a monthly character. His lore is broken, his enemies are generic copycats with little agency, his powers are both OP and trite, his entire being is contradictory as the whole idea of a "man of tomorrow" will never come as he's never allowed to impact anything. Superman works best as a one-off character in Elseworlds tales where his mere presence shapes the world around him. Where there are no derivatives and Super-Families to drag the concept down. Superman just cannot be used like other cape characters. In a shared universe he can only be a villain-adjascent character or a withdrawn cosmic force that sees action every once in a while. Superman's only usefulness is to be a god-on-earth with the analogous powers and standing, coming in and out of other characters' stories. It's why MiracleMan is a superior Superman, for the character actually fulfilled his function. Superman works only in mini formats like Red Son and the such, otherwise he's a less than mediocre cape that has a lot of manufactured importance thrust onto him.
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